Chris Belmont was a catcher on his high school baseball team and he played the same position in college in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Later, he played in an adult league in the New Orleans area, all while busy advancing in his career. Now CIO of Ochsner Health System, Louisiana’s largest private employer, Belmont has recently put together an ambitious IT strategy that will change the way the company does business over the next three years. The bases are loaded. Guess who’s up to bat?

 

Belmont shares the following insight about time management and leadership. “I don’t think anybody feels they are on top of time management,” he says. “Each of us has the impression that somebody else is doing it better; but the reality is, absolutely everybody is on the lookout for ways to get more out of their day.

 

“I think the key lies in setting priorities,” he says. “In my position, I’ve had to take the attitude that some things are going to fall through the cracks, but hopefully the ones that do won’t come back to bite me. And if you miss something, make sure you bounce back and recover well.

 

“It’s all about being organized. It’s about taking everything that comes at you and asking yourself if it’s something you have to do, or if it’s better off being done by somebody else. Like a lot of people, I tend to fall into the trap of thinking that if I don’t do it, it won’t get done well. That’s not the case, though, so I have to fight against that. As you move up the food chain, you have to hold other people accountable for doing their jobs and not do it for them.

 

“I constantly have to fight against this. I need to do my job and let other people do theirs and hold them accountable.